Mother Of The Bride Dress
I’m sitting at my kitchen counter with a cup of coffee after our week long trip to Cabo to celebrate the wedding between Sydney and AB. It’s good to be home in Georgia but I miss everyone already. It truly was a fairytale wedding and dream come true for our girl and her prince.
Thanks to everyone for the love and support including those who have written such beautiful and heartfelt comments. We see them.
I received lots of message asking about my dress so I decided to write a quick blog about it. The dress I wore for Sydney and AB’s wedding of course comes with a story… I bought it the evening before the evening before we left for Cabo.
It is difficult to find an age appropriate dress. I don’t know what designers are thinking when they forget to put sleeves on dresses. On my quest for a dress, which began, several months ago, I overheard another woman around my age asking a salesclerk for a dress with sleeves. The options were minimal. I have a tick about showing armpits and upper arms in general. I ended up ordering several dresses on line. Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus run great sales and have free shipping and returns. The Jessicas (JJD and Jess Payne) told me they order lots of stuff, try it on and return what they don’t like. I decided to give it a try, though knew it wouldn’t be as easy for me. They, like Sydney, could try on a paper sack and make it look good. I ordered a gorgeous Theia dress, same designer as I wore for Jessica and Eric’s wedding, and it was on sale. I couldn’t believe it fit like a glove straight off the rack! It was a dark navy however it almost looked black and we all know that is a "no no" for the MOB.
Steve loved it and said it fit the curves of my body so nicely. He is nicest most loving man. He tells me I’m beautiful when I least expect it. He gets me every time. I showed the dress to Jess and she loved it but thought it should come off the shoulders a bit and AB and Syd decided it was too matronly. I think they forget I’m almost 50. We all decided I should get it altered to fit off the shoulders and to keep looking for a dress to beat it. I kept looking and ordering and nothing worked. Here’s where the drama began. I had three attempts up until two days before we left to get this dress right. It was impossible to sew the way we had envisioned. I was so frustrated at the final fitting in the tiny little room at the drycleaners. The seamstress, dry cleaning lady and I agreed it was all wrong so I asked her to undo all the alterations. I was crying and in a panic upon leaving the drycleaners.
The second dress that was a contender was a green one-shoulder dress Jessica had ordered for me. It was beautiful, but the fabric was light corduroy, which really wasn’t right for Cabo, and of course I didn’t like my arms all out in the open like that. I had it altered anyway as a back up option and when I tried it on at home, the zipper broke and it was stuck on my body. So there I was with my original too dark dress unaltered and a dress that was broken and stuck to me. As mother of the bride in an already emotional state, I started crying again. I tried to avoid stressing Syd out, so I called Jess and she begged me to come to Nashville to look but there was no time, nor was there time to order any more dresses. My sweet husband, Mr. Banana hands felt so bad. He had tried to zip the dress when it broke. I cried and felt fat and sorry for myself then dried my tears and put on my big girl panties. My only option was to head out to another mall. I’m sure I was a sight to behold with my hair pulled back, no makeup and tear stained face. I tried on a few dresses at some department stores. Everything was either too matronly or too sexy. You don’t want sexy as MOB. The trick was it’s winter, but the wedding is in a tropical destination, its formal, but outdoors. You can’t wear black, white or red as MOB nor any really bright colors. The day is about your daughter, the bride. You want to compliment the colors of the wedding, look really nice because it is a big day for you as well, but not look like you are trying too hard. Slippery slope y’all.
I headed out of the department store and decide to stop in BCBG. The young girls working there were very nice and helpful. I asked a sweet girl if they had any formals and told her what I was looking for and she led me to the back of the store. I explained the no armpit, no red, black or white rule and we found two options. I was hopeful. I sent pics to Jess and Jess, Steve and Syd and we all agreed on the same dress as it was in perfect taste for MOB. The sales girl proclaimed as she rang up the dress… “And it’s on sale for 25 percent off,” I smiled, thanked her and walked out BCBG the day before the day before we left for Cabo with my MOB dress, The Cailean Floral Lace Gown.
Till next time,
Love and Blessings
Mama Karen